First, "Be" Right...

One of the tenants of Buddhism that I (think I) have been able to distill into my understanding is that good (right) practice is preceded by appropriate (right) thinking.

Like many recreational runners, I maintain a journal of miles and workouts which I update daily, weekly and monthly to track my performance and improvement. As I continue to struggle with my meditative sitting over this past week, and reflected on my days via a review of my running log, it occurred to me, why not "track" those days on which my behavior or "thinking" fails to be consistently "right?"

Now, you may say to yourself "just who is not 'guilty' of wrong thinking at least a small part of every day?"

Understood, but I sure believe that the potential lies within myself (and you), through considerate behavior and intentional reflection and consideration, to be more selective and less offensive for the better part of most days. Tracking this in my log, though is a tricky thing as I don't want to give the misperception that each day I place a "frowny face" on the log date, that I have committed some horrific offense.

Most frequently, I try to reflect on my day and try to identify just how positive or healthy my interactions with others, and myself, have been--this results in the occasional frowny face and more importantly, it gives me a place to look at physically and recall what I have done that is not-so-right and better understand what I can do that is illustrative of right thinking and action.

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!